Off the Shelf
Resnick’s ‘Ivory’ laments disintegration of distinctive cultures
By LEE CLARK ZUMPE
Article published on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007  |
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| “Ivory,” by Mike Resnick; published by Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books. |
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The name Mike Resnick may not be as familiar as, say, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin or Harlan Ellison, but it should be.
The trade journal of science fiction, Locus, maintains a list of winners of major genre awards. Resnick tops the list for short fiction award winners and he’s in the top five for all-time winners in all fiction categories.
His work has earned him five Hugos, one Nebula and six Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Awards among other honors. He’s a prolific author, having written more than 50 novels and nearly 200 short stories.
When not creating new worlds for readers to ingest, he occupies his time editing anthologies (40 of them to date) and writing regular columns for publications such as Speculations, The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy and the “SFWA Bulletin.”
“Ivory,” originally published by Tor in 1988 and set to be re-released this month by Pyr Science Fiction and Fantasy, provides a perfect example of this visionary author’s fertile imagination. Resnick, whose work regularly hinges upon the power of legend, has cultivated in these pages an epic history that spans millennia and the breadth of the galaxy.
The tale is as much a mystery as it is a traditional science fiction yarn. Duncan Rojas, the novel’s primary narrator, works for Braxton’s “Records of Big Game” authenticating the preserved remains of animals in museums throughout the galaxy … animals not only from earth, but from the vast number of planets and alien worlds humanity has either conquered, colonized or come into contact with during the first 6,000 years of the Galactic Era.
Rojas is approached by Bukoba Mandaka, who claims to be the last member of the Maasai, an African tribe that once lived in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Mandaka enlists Rojas’ aid in locating the tusks of the famed Kilimanjaro Elephant. Mandaka, who is willing to pay an enormous sum to secure the relics, will disclose neither his motives nor his intentions.
As Rojas traces the tusks through the centuries, he discovers how they passed from one owner to another – in a high-stakes card game, as the catalyst for war … even as a prop in a clash between rival archeologists. Each significant incident becomes a tale itself, so that “Ivory” is a mosaic constructed from short stories interconnected through Rojas’ commissioned search.
As the story progresses, Rojas becomes obsessed with the tusks – and with finding out why they are so important to Mandaka.
While the individual accounts of the warlord, the thief, the curator and the others who play a role in the history of the tusks display the appealing escapism of classic science fiction, the novel has an overriding melancholy about it that underscores the tragedy of post-colonialism and vanishing heritage.
Resnick’s subtle theme of conservationism encompasses not only the flora and fauna of this planet, but the distinctive cultures of its varied ethnic groups – particularly those of Africa.
Mandaka is symbolic of birthright and veneration of customs, while Rojas represents a transient, almost mechanical existence.
Resnick spins a good yarn – several in fact – as he imagines the future history of two pieces of ivory which currently reside in a storage facility beneath the British Museum of Natural History. Yes, the tusks are real … and they’re waiting to see just how accurate Resnick’s insight turns out to be.
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Article published on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007
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